Strength
by Raven-Geek
Summary: Levy is weak. And she had accepted that; maybe ignored it a tad. But when something happens to Gajeel, she blames it on herself and struggles to find the courage to visit him in hospital. Luckily for her, there's someone who believes despite how everyone else had given up on her. But can Levy overcome this and find a way to become truly strong? GaLe Non-Cannon. Please R&R :)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The small army, maybe around 100 soldiers, surrounded the three. A fierce, human sized cat lowered himself into a fighting stance, balancing the weight of his sword. The ink haired human backed against his smaller companion and growled. Levy panted behind him; it wouldn't be long until she passed out from magical exhaustion. Lily, the exceed, wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead. Again with him, the magic that gave him unbelievable strength had its limits that were pushing against it. Gajeel seemed to be the only one capable for fighting longer but even he couldn't fight all of these by himself.

"Levy, how do we get out of this?" He hissed to her, keeping his eyes fixed to the enemies readying themselves to attack. Gajeel could be an airhead but he wasn't stupid in battle. There was no way to get out of this battle alive. The soldiers edged closer by the second and he could feel Levy whip her small head back and forth in search for her comrades. He shook his head. "They're busy in their own battles, Shrimp."

"T-Then we have to fight. We can't just fl—"

"We have no choice!"

"Gajeel…"

"Can you get us out of here or not?"

The blunette shook her head and pressed her mouth into a thin line. "I don't have enough power left to block them out. I'm sorry."

"Try, Levy," even the cat looked desperate. "We believe in you!"

The armour clad soldiers started to charge and Levy screamed. "Gajeel, I—"

"You have to try!"

"SOLID SCRIPT," they were so close now. Gajeel powered up as much as he could just in case she couldn't do it. But he believed. She could do it. She'd always overpowered the impossible. "SHIELD!"

The blue tinted words erupted from her fingers and encased the three in an opaque bubble, stopping the army from getting to them almost four feet away. Gajeel knew she couldn't hold it for long and so he gestured to a point for them all to run to. But before they could, Levy let out a small yelp and the bubble popped. The army took the opportunity to strike.

Gajeel yelled for the shrimp and she yelled back. They were swept away from each other despite his best attempts to get them to safety. Their protests were drowned out by the soldiers' victory laughs. It infuriated Gajeel to the point where he no longer felt the slices from their swords or heard their voices. He concentrated, taking in deep breaths, using all of his power to choke them with the shadow he held inside of him.

Before he had a chance to see it it worked, the world went dark like the darkness inside.

 **Let me know if I should continue this :) I'll post another few chapters in the coming days to make up your mind fully. Don't forget to tell me what you think. It really makes my day :D**


	2. Chapter 1 Paralysis

**Chapter 1 ~ Paralysis**

 _Deep breaths, Levy._

She opened her eyes to the harsh morning light and sat up. There was no Gajeel to ward away the monsters in her nightmares anymore and there wouldn't be for a while. Levy scrubbed away the sleep away from her eyes, wishing she could brush away the dark bags there too. With no such luck, she struggled to dress and tame the wild blue locks.

Since the battle last week, she'd been allowed to return home for a little bit to recover her full strength. Lily had kept her company for a few days before heading back out to the battle. Levy wanted to follow but the guild thought it best for her not to.

"Recover for a few more days, Lev," Lucy had said on her brief lunch break. The blonde was magically exhausted when she'd seen her but somehow she managed to find extra to keep fighting. Same with Erza and Mirajane and Juvia. Even Wendy was trying to boost everyone's power while battling her own enemies.

It all made Levy feel so useless and weak.

And after she'd let everyone down, especially Gajeel and Lily, she wasn't surprised they didn't want her on the battlefield. She was a hindrance that held everyone back. And that was saying something considering Jet and Droy were fighting too.

Levy hissed at herself. They weren't weak. That was such a mean thing to say, well, think. Which is why she deserved to suffer. The many wounds that covered her body would heal but the damage she'd done wouldn't. He'd never forgive her; she'd avoided him for a reason. The rejection would hurt too much.

Her failure had paralysed him from the waist down because he'd used more magic than he possessed to save them. He'd probably never walk again. There was very few people with magic that could fix it.

The news broke her more than she'd let on.

The tear that had fallen onto her cheek was left to run as she glanced into the mirror. The fact that she went shoeless because the pain of strapping her own sandals on was too much, showed just how weak she really was. She should've just stuck to books like she usually did. Maybe they never would've ventured that far into enemy territory and it all never would've happened.

She threw open the books, ones she'd read about the kingdom and heritages of Garena many times before, to find extra information to aid her comrades. She already knew she wouldn't but she had to hold onto hope. She just had to.

The small room, not too far from the battlefield, was stacked full of books of different magics, history and fiction. Her feet meshed together with the cheap carpet Lucy had donated and searched for some sort of warmth. Maybe she wasn't physically cold but there was always the urge to warm herself even if the efforts were in vain.

Levy narrowed her eyes, shuffling the book from one hand to the other. It was so hard to concentrate on the words that she read but seemed to have lost all meaning. After a few more tries on going over the same sentence, she tossed the literature away with a growl and held her head in her hands. "Useless." Whether or not she was gesturing to herself or the text was a whole other subject. One she was certain the answer was both.

She sobbed in frustration and anger, pounding her fists against the table. It didn't even scratch the surface.

"Throwing a hissy fit ain't gonna help, shrimp. You of all people should know that." The familiar voice made her whole body jar into an uncomfortable position and she used her sleeve to scrub away tears and a small trail where her nose had run. The blunette sniffed and plastered on a smile. But she didn't turn to face him.

"Gajeel, I'm…" What was there to say about anything without sounding like a jerk.

"Save it. I don't want an apology or to make awkward conversation. I chose to do what I did and I have no regrets. So what if I'm crippled? The ladies all love a crippled guy," he chuckled. Levy didn't see the humour in it.

She heard the wheels squeak slightly as he got closer and flinched. "Go away please." She knew she was being unreasonable. He didn't deserve that. Gajeel sighed and placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn't feel him strain which could only mean that he was still taller than her. Even in the damn wheelchair.

"Stop blaming yourself, Levy. And for Metalicana's sake, stop moping will you? You look and sound like a stroppy teenager drama queen and it ain't pretty."

She closed her eyes and held her breath. Thankfully he turned around and left, the squeak following with him. He was right. She was probably being over dramatic but she'd crippled him! She had a right to be dramatic.

The words stuck in her head. _Just get over it, Levy. He forgives you. So forgive yourself._ Levy nodded and smiled. She'd do exactly that. _Try not to lie to yourself, though_.

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter - sorry, I'm not very good at writing long chapters. Please keep leaving your reviews so I can look at them when Fanfiction fixes the issue of me being unable to see them. I've been trying all day, even looking it up. It might be a few days unfortunately :( have a nice day/night**!


	3. Chapter 2 - Curiosity

"Hey, I have an idea."

"That's usually what you have the most of, short stuff."

Levy frowned but didn't pay much attention to him. "When you're... better, why don't you teach me how to defend myself properly. Or at least to get a bit stronger. I'd love to help out but they won't seem to let me."

"That's because you haven't found it yet."

"Found what? You can't play this game, Gajeel."

"You want to be like Lucy? Or Erza? Or Natsu? You need to find your reason to keep going even when you're running on empty. I think you'll find that all three of theirs is the name, gihi, but obviously that isn't your thing."

Levy laughed. It was a fairly pathetic excuse for a laugh, but she was trying. "I think that's the most you've ever said in one go, idiot."

"Never said I was, uh, is articulate the right word?"

She nodded. A reason to keep fighting, eh? It shouldn't be too hard to find. Despite what she'd originally thought, her reason to fight wasn't to protect her friends like everyone else. It wasn't Gajeel. That surprised her. Levy was no fool; she knew that she liked him and he liked her. But they were both too shy or too pigheaded to do anything about it.

She noticed that he'd already managed to decorate the cheap wheelchair. Mostly by sticking iron pole shaped stickers to the metallic parts and it appeared someone has spray painted 'IRON GOD' onto the wide plain used for his back. Levy couldn't help but laugh to herself at the cheesiness. Although he'd now suffered so badly - never able to walk - he still managed to get into small fights with 'Flame Brain' and stayed so... Positive.

Now that she thought about it, he was being a bit too positive.

"Yeah."

"Eh?" Levy blinked, her thoughts interrupted. She hadn't realised she'd been silent for that long.

"Yeah, I'll help ya. But let's regain some magic first. Ya never know, my, uh, position could just be temporary."

Her eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Don't see why not. I'm not always gonna be around to help you out so you should learn how to protect yourself. Train so you don't lose magic so quickly."

Levy smiled back at him, glad she didn't have to look so far up to see him. They were both planted at a table in the library, both put on enemy research whilst they were recovering so it was always good for people like herself. She wasn't great at fighting, but reading, she was hands down the best at that.

She got back to work, allowing her fingers to scan the pages of ancient books of ancient languages. Languages only Levy had managed to master throughout her time in Fairy Tail. They held prophecies of the strongest magic bearers coming together to fight the ones with the strongest wills. Without a doubt, that told the tale of Fairy Tail and the unknown enemies. Levy gave them the unofficial names of 'the Brotherhood'.

She'd caught sight of one of them a few weeks back and it gave her a fright. They moved like something not human and feasted on the corpses of the fallen ones whether they be friends or foes. One look at the cloaked figure - with some paper tied around his waist - made her shake in her boots. And she was sent sprawling across one of the battlefields. She'd had bruises for weeks.

Levy continued to read as it talked about a scarlet haired wizard who was thought to come out on top. Erza, clearly. And then came the 'but'. And the sentence continued on the next page but it wasn't for the one she was reading. Page were torn from the spine. What was the 'but'? The blue haired girl growled in frustration and shoved the book away. "So useless!"

She got a few looks from some of the others injured and just sobbed to herself. Over something so stupid.

"Eh? Why are you crying? It's just a book."

"That was a prophecy! And it said something was going to happen and that Erza could save everyone. But there was a 'but'! The pages were torn so I can't find out what it was and-"

She buried her head in her arms and tried to calm herself down. She felt some awkward, half-hearted taps from Gajeel which was oddly comforting. "I need to go."

Levy wheeled Gajeel out without another word after doing a sufficient amount of reading and sent him back to his room. If he was going to teach her, he'd have to be at his best. And his best was not easily achieved anymore. It was hard trying to haul him onto his bed when he continued to throw a load of short jokes at her too but together, the both seemed to manage it.

He lay there panting for a little bit, not seeming able to speak. So instead, Levy hummed. She hummed the familiar tune from home that her mother used to sing. Of course, she wasn't really a great singer, so humming would have to do. It seemed to calm him so she continued.

"Hey, Shrimp."

"Yes?"

"Stay safe, will you?"

"Always, Gajeel. Now sleep. The more you sleep, the quicker we can train."

"Yes, boss."

She turned out the light and left him able to sleep. But she couldn't rest much herself. She had to find out what the end of that prophecy was and why it was important enough to have the pages torn out. And she had a pretty good guess of where it was.

* * *

 **Please rate and review :D**


End file.
